Donny Lia Masters the Art of Passing Over Florida Speedweeks
Young Long Islander Finishes Fourth in Standings After Making Up Much Ground
The strong Speedweeks finish wasn’t just a result of Lia’s navigating through traffic.
“My guys really did awesome all week,” said Lia. “They made it all possible by busting their butts every night. I’m lucky to have them. We had a good time and we were competitive. It was a good week for us.”
Donny Lia finished fourth in points during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway (FL). He didn’t just cruise around to finish there, though. The Long Islander had to fight for every position during the seven Modified races of the week, which included one victory and a second-place finish to end the series of racing on Saturday night.
In the end, Lia was very pleased with the results posted by the #18 Lia Motorsports, Inc. team.
“We wound up fourth in points and got a win,” said Lia. “We finished in the top five for all of our races except for two of them. It was a good time. We didn’t really tear up
too much, which is a good thing, and we got some good finishes.”
The hard work made the results even sweeter for Lia.
“It’s always exciting to do that. Nobody passed as many cars as we did during the week. Not even close. Whoever was second probably didn’t pass a quarter of the cars that I did. I had to come from the back almost in every single race. When I did qualify up front, I would redraw eighth anyways. We passed a lot of cars on a track where it is so hard to make passes.”
And while all of that passing gave Lia and his team a sense of accomplishment for a job well-done, it was not something that was a lot of fun at the time.
“No, it’s not fun or easy,” said Lia. “It’s a lot of work. It’s hard to pass there. At any other racetrack, it would be fun, but there’s no real passing at New Smyrna. You just have to send the car in there a ton and turn it. You really have to drive it in to make a pass. You’re always right at the point of wrecking. It’s a tough deal down there. It’s crazy.”
